1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to POS (point-of-sales) system, and more particularly to a POS system which can process information regarding discounting.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a system for sales information management, a POS system has been spread widely in retail stores and so forth in recent years. In the POS system, a bar code applied to each commodity is read to decide a sales price. In recent years, services provided by retail stores and so forth have been and are diversified, and above all, a discount service is one of services which are provided frequently.
The following forms are available for provision of a discount service while a POS system is used.
In a first form, an ordinary price is indicated, and a discount seal is adhered to the commodity and its commodity tag. In this instance, an operator who operates a POS apparatus will visually observe the discount seal to confirm a discount amount of money and input the discount amount of money using a keyboard section connected to a POS control section. The POS control section thus searches for pre-discount price information, which is price information before the discount of the commodity, from bar code data, subtracts the inputted discount amount of money from the pre-discount price to decide the discounted price and displays the discounted price.
As a second form, such a discount system as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 212459/1996 is available. In the system, a discount amount of money is indicated in a bar code and discounting processing is performed based on the bar code.
As a third form, such a discount system as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 232133/1988 is available. In the system, when discounting is to be performed, a portable bar code label processing apparatus of the handy type is used to read a label, subtract an amount of money designated by a discounting method from the pre-discount amount of money thus read from the label and re-issue a bar code label based on resulting data.
As a fourth form, such a discount system as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 77256/1996 is available. In the system, information regarding sales conditions which vary depending upon the time, hour or the like such as a discount period, a discount price and a discount rate is marked on a multi-dimensional bar code, and the multi-dimensional bar code is read to provide a discount service or the like.
The conventional POS systems described above have the following problems.
According to the first form, determination of a discount amount of money and so forth upon settlement depends upon inputting of an operator, and an error cannot be eliminated completely and it is cumbersome to perform an inputting operation successively.
In the second form, where the bar code inputting apparatus is of the type which is usually used in a supermarket or the like and wherein a commodity is moved in front of a laser irradiating window of a scanner to read a bar code applied to the commodity, a bar code on which discount information is marked cannot sometimes be read. If a discount bar code cannot be read correctly, then the commodity cannot be discounted, which may result in loss of credit of the customer.
In the third form, since a bar code label produced with new data obtained by discounting calculation based on pre-discount data read by means of a scanner is applied to the commodity, the pre-discount data is not known to the POS system. Consequently, there is a problem that the customer cannot know by what amount of money the commodity is discounted.
According to the fourth form, various information can be written using a multi-dimensional bar code. However, it is not popular to use a multi-dimensional bar code with a POS system, and it is necessary to construct unique hardware. Thus, the system of the fourth form is low in universal use.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a POS system which does not make an error in discounting with a simple construction and is high in credit of a customer.
In order to attain the object described above, according to the present invention, there is provided a POS system, comprising a bar code production apparatus for producing a bar code which includes discount information of a commodity, and a POS apparatus for reading information of the bar code produced by the bar code production apparatus and performing settlement processing based on the read information, the bar code production apparatus including bar code reading means for reading a bar code of a commodity before the commodity is discounted, discount money amount inputting means for inputting a discount amount of money for the commodity whose bar code has been read by the bar code reading means, bar code production means for producing a bar code which includes the pre-discount commodity information and the discount money amount information based on the bar code read by the bar code reading means and the discount money amount inputted by the discount money amount inputting means, and bar code outputting means for outputting the bar code produced by the bar code production means, the POS apparatus including POS bar code reading means for reading a bar code, bar code discrimination means for discriminating whether or not the bar code read by the POS bar code reading means has been produced by the bar code production means of the bar code production apparatus and includes discount information, price calculation means for calculating, if it is discriminated by the bar code discrimination means that the bar code read by the bar code reading means includes discount money amount information, a post-discount price of the commodity based on information of the read bar code, and price outputting means for outputting the post-discount price calculated by the price calculation means together with the pre-discount price.
Thus, the POS system comprises the bar code production apparatus for producing a bar code which includes discount information of a commodity, and the POS apparatus for reading information of the bar code produced by the bar code production apparatus and performing settlement processing based on the read information. In the POS system, settlement for a commodity to be purchased by a customer including discounting of the commodity is performed by the POS apparatus. To this end, the bar code reading means of the bar code production apparatus reads a bar code of a commodity before the commodity is discounted, and the discount money amount inputting means inputs a discount amount of money for the commodity whose bar code has been read by the bar code reading means.
After the bar code of the commodity before it is discounted is read by the bar code reading means and the discount amount of money is inputted by the discount money amount inputting means, the bar code production means produces a bar code which includes the pre-discount commodity information and the discount money amount information based on the bar code read by the bar code reading means and the discount money amount inputted by the discount money amount inputting means. After the bar code production means produces the bar code which includes the pre-discount commodity information and the discount money amount information, the bar code outputting means outputs the bar code produced by the bar code production means. Accordingly, if a label of the bar code thus produced is applied to the commodity, then the POS apparatus can process the discount information.
The POS bar code reading means of the POS apparatus reads the bar code, and the bar code discrimination means discriminates whether or not the bar code read by the POS bar code reading means has been produced by the bar code production means of the bar code production apparatus and includes discount information. If it is discriminated by the bar code discrimination means that the bar code read by the bar code reading means includes discount money amount information, then the price calculation means calculates a post-discount price of the commodity based on information of the read bar code.
Further, the price outputting means outputs the post-discount price calculated by the price calculation means together with the pre-discount price. Consequently, the POS system can perform a discount service upon settlement and definitely indicates to the customer that a discount service is provided.
Consequently, with the POS system, since the bar code production apparatus and the POS apparatus handle a bar code to which discount information is added, an error in discounting caused by a failure in reading of a discount bar code can be prevented. Further, since a pre-discount price and a post-discount price are definitely indicated to a customer, the trust of the customer can be maintained.
Here, the bar code production means of the bar code production apparatus is required only to produce a bar code which includes discount money amount information, and can be constructed in various manners. Thus, the POS system may be constructed particularly such that the bar code production means of the bar code production apparatus produces a bar code of a standard different from an ordinary standard for a bar code for a commodity, and the POS bar code reading means of the POS apparatus is capable of reading the bar code of the standard different from the ordinary standard for a bar code for a commodity.
The bar code to be used for processing in the POS system is a standardized bar code, and the bar code production means of the bar code production apparatus produces a bar code of a standard different from an ordinary standard for a bar code for a commodity. Then, the POS bar code reading means of the POS apparatus is constructed so as to read the bar code of the standard different from the ordinary standard for a bar code for a commodity. Consequently, the POS apparatus can handle discount information by reading the bar code of the different standard.
Thus, the POS system is advantageous in that it can handle ordinary commodity information and discount information simply.
The bar code of the standard different from the ordinary standard for a bar code for a commodity can be produced in various manners. Thus, the POS system may be constructed such that the bar code production means of the bar code production apparatus adds discount money amount information to information of an ordinary bar code for a commodity to produce a bar code of a standard different from an ordinary standard for a bar code of a commodity.
Information included in an ordinary bar code for a commodity includes the price of a commodity prior to discount, the name of the commodity and so forth, and the information mentioned is used also in the POS system to which the present invention is applied. Thus, the bar code production means adds the discount money amount information to the information of the ordinary bar code for a commodity to produce a bar code of the standard different from the ordinary standard for a bar code of a commodity. As a result, while the POS system can perform processing which can be performed by a conventional POS system, it can additionally perform discount processing.
Thus, the POS system is advantageous in that it can add discount information to ordinary commodity information simply.
Specific bar codes may be used for the bar codes of the ordinary standard for a commodity and the standard different from the ordinary standard for a commodity. In particular, the POS system may be constructed such that the bar code reading means of the bar code production apparatus reads a bar code of the JAN (Japanese Article Number) standard which is a standard bar code for a commodity prescribed by the Japanese Article Number, and the bar code production means produces a bar code of the CODE 128 standard and the bar code reading means of the POS apparatus is capable of reading the bar code of the CODE 128 standard.
Since the JAN standard is normally used as an ordinary bar code standard for a commodity in Japan, the bar code reading means of the bar code production apparatus reads a bar code of the JAN standard which is a standard bar code for a commodity in Japan. Since the JAN standard allows handling of data only of 13 figures, in order to use discount information, a bar code standard is preferably used which can handle a greater number of figures than the JAN standard.
Therefore, the bar code production means of the bar code production apparatus produces a bar code of the CODE 128 standard, and the bar code reading means of the POS apparatus is constructed so as to read the bar code of the CODE 128 standard. Accordingly, the POS apparatus can handle discount information while using the predetermined standard of the CODE 128.
Thus, the POS system is advantageous in that it is high in universal use since it basically uses an ordinary bar code standard for a commodity.
Since the POS system to which the present invention is applied can handle discount information in this manner, it is desirable to definitely indicate to the customer upon settlement that a discount service is provided. Thus, preferably the price outputting means of the POS apparatus displays the pre-discount price and the post-discount price so as to be visually observed by a customer upon settlement for the commodity.
In particular, generally a POS system is constructed such that, when settlement processing is performed, the price of an individual commodity can be visually observed by a customer. Thus, in the POS system to which the present invention is applied, in order to indicate to the customer that a discount service is provided actually, the price outputting means of the POS apparatus displays the pre-discount price and the post-discount price so as to be visually observed by a customer upon settlement for the commodity. As a result, the customer can visually discriminate whether or not each individual commodity is discounted actually, and also to the store side, it is advantageous that the customer does not have an unnecessary distrust to the store.
In order to indicate contents of a discount service more definitely to a customer, preferably the price outputting means of the POS apparatus outputs a receipt on which the pre-discount price and the post-discount price are printed after settlement for the commodity.
In particular, usually a POS system issues a receipt to a customer in almost all cases after settlement processing is performed. Therefore, in order to definitely indicate to a customer that a discount service is provided actually, the price outputting means of the POS apparatus outputs a receipt on which the pre-discount price and the post-discount price are printed after settlement for the commodity. As a result, a customer can confirm on the receipt whether or not each individual commodity is discounted actually, and can confirm contents of any service readily even after time passes after the settlement. Consequently, the POS system can maintain the trust of the customer.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like parts or elements are denoted by like reference symbols.